Area win sends Raiders to Regional

Published 7:50 am, Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Photo: Photo By JEFF SCHWARTZENBERG

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Photo: Photo By JEFF SCHWARTZENBERG

Area win sends Raiders to Regional

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Last Saturday’s 49-33 Randall Raider win over El Paso Andress marked the third week in a row that the Raiders were under a minute when the outcome of the game was finally decided. Although stressful on fans, players and coaches, with a victorious outcome in each case, the Raiders would likely be satisfied to continue the trend, as long as the outcome remains the same.

The first quarter of the ball game was nothing like the rest of the contest. The teams sparred, but neither scored through the first 12 minutes. Randall kicked off to Andress. After five plays, they punted. Randall took over at the Andress 48, but after seven plays, the Raiders punted.

It looked like Andress collected the first big break of the game when they recovered a Randall fumble on the Randall 33 with 3:14 remaining in the first quarter. Two incomplete passes were followed by a 15-yard holding penalty against the Andress War Eagles, and then a sack dropped them back on their own 49 with a third down and 25. When the Andress quarterback threw the ball away under pressure from the Raiders, they let their opportunity slip away, gaining only five yards on the exchange as their punt was returned to the Raider 31.

On the last play of the first quarter, the Raiders punted. That punt only advanced the ball from the Raider 38 to their 47. Again, with great field position to begin their drive, Andress squandered their opportunity. After earning a quick first down to the Randall 34, an incomplete pass and then a pass completed for a one yard gain, set up a third and nine. Smothering defense led to an interception. An unsportsmanlike conduct flag against the Raiders after the return gave them a first down on the Andress 39. On the first play from scrimmage, Wyatt Garton found daylight and put six points on the scoreboard for Randall. The Nick Dominguez point-after kick was good and Randall led 7-0.

Receiving the Randall kickoff with 10:45 left in the second quarter, Andress wasted no time in getting back in the game. It took them only four plays to travel 70 yards into the end zone. Their kick was good and the score was knotted at 7-7 with 9:26 remaining until halftime.

With the scoreless bubble burst, Randall was back quickly on the offensive. Starting from their 25 when the kickoff went through the end zone, the Raiders used seven plays to move 75 yards into the War Eagle end zone. The last 16 yards came on a Brett Taff keeper. Dominguez was perfect all day, and the Raiders had a 14-7 lead. As the game turned out, the Andress War Eagles never caught up with them for the rest of the game.

That’s not that the War Eagles didn’t make it uncomfortably interesting. Their next possession fizzled after four plays when the fourth-and-two pass from their 44 yard line went incomplete. With 3:40 remaining in the second quarter, the Raiders took over there on downs. But they couldn’t capitalize, punting on fourth down after a net loss of a yard on three plays. The punt rolled dead on the Andress 10 with 1:36 left before halftime.

Andress quickly gained eight yards on a run and then picked up 15 on a roughing the passer call against Randall. On first down from their 33, the Andress quarterback threw the ball into the waiting hands of Randall’s Giovanni Centeno, who returned it to the Andress 29, giving Randall possession and a first down with 1:19 remaining in the second quarter.

Taff took it in from the 29 on a scramble that produced a touchdown. With the Dominguez kick, the Raiders led 21-7, but Andress wasn’t finished yet.

Taking the kickoff, Andress returned the ball to the Randall 28. After an incomplete pass, the next one was good for a touchdown. At 21-13 with 57 seconds left in the first half, the Andress point-after kick was blocked by the Raider horde.

The first half ended with unexplained confusion that led to a rekick of the Andress kickoff and time expiring on a penalty when 15 seconds had remained. The first half ended with Randall leading 21-13, all scored in the second quarter.

Andress kicked off to Randall to begin the second half. After Jake Gonzales returned the ball to the 34, Garton got the call on first down. He went the 66 yards into the end zone to give Randall the 28-13 lead, after Dominguez’s kick was good.

Andress answered with a six-play touchdown drive that took two minutes off the clock and closed the Randall lead to 28-20.

With 9:44 left in the third quarter, Randall returned the kickoff to midfield. Then, using 10 plays and over five minutes, they scored on a Taff keeper from the 17. Dominguez made the score 35-20.

Andress downed the kickoff in the end zone and went to work from their 25. On the seventh play of their drive, a four-yard pass play scored a War Eagle touchdown, and the PAT kick was good to make the Randall margin 35-27.

The War Eagles immediately went for an on-side kick and made it good by recovering at the Randall 35. Poised to capitalize and pull even, their first play from scrimmage was a pass into the end zone. The ball was caught, but not by a War Eagle. It was Randall’s Haiden Battin who came down with the ball. With 1:29 left in the third quarter, Randall had the ball on their 20 and the Andress threat had been defused.

Alternating between Garton and Taff, the Raiders took seven plays to drive 80 yard into the Andress end zone, the last 15 coming on a run by Taff. With 11:09 remaining in the game, the Dominguez kick improved Randall’s edge to 42-27.

Undaunted, Andress took the Randall kickoff at their 25 yard line and returned it 75 yards for a touchdown. Trailing 42-33, the War Eagles decided it was time to make up for the PAT kick that had been blocked in the first quarter. Going for two, the Randall defense stiffened and the PAT failed, leaving the Raiders in the 42-33 lead, keeping the spread at two possessions.

Randall received the Andress kickoff at their 25 with 10:58 remaining in the game. Grinding it out on the time-consuming ground game, the Raiders ran 17 plays, including two fourth down conversions, one a gutsy fourth-and-one at their own 33 and the other a fourth-and-two at the Andress 29. On second-and-goal from the Andress three, Garton surged across the goal line with 1:43 left in the game. Dominguez added the insurance point with his kick, and the Raiders led 49-33.

A short kick gave the War Eagles the ball at their 44, and a quick completion moved them into Randall territory at the 45. After six plays, with time the most valuable commodity in Kimbrough Stadium, the War Eagles faced a fourth-and-10 at the Randall 31. The possession went over on downs when they failed to convert, and Taff took a knee for Randall with 10 seconds left on the clock.

Raider head coach Bryan Wood said, “I think every play was critical. If you watched the game, you know that any point, any one bad play was going to create the opportunity for a momentum change. An on-side kick, an interception or a nine-minute drive or missing a point-after. You always feel like that was going to help. They missed and then they went for two and didn’t make it. It’s a nine-point difference. It’s a two possession game. That’s a big difference.”

Although the scoreboard showed a 16-point difference, the flow of the game didn’t let up until the last 10 seconds. Wood described when he was sure that the Raiders had the victory. “When we stopped them on fourth down and got to run our offense out there and kneel it down. “

The win sends the Raiders (11-1) to the Regional round at 2 p.m. tomorrow against Wichita Falls Rider (8-4) at Lubbock’s Lowery Field.